Tonight’s instalment of the art programme saw Antiques Roadshow presenter Fiona Bruce diving deep into another mystery around an unusual and impressive painting on the BBC.
The sleuthing continued throughout as the presenters continued to get closer and closer to the truth around who actually painted the portrait.
The group speculated that due to the brush strokes, style and technique the artist was actually Thomas Lawrence.
However the painting was labelled under later painter Maria Cosway, prompting much confusion.
The painting belongs to Hugh and Mirabel Cecil, whom Philip Mould was visiting one day when he spotted the majestic painting hanging in their home.
Immediately commenting on the exceptional work by Lawrence, he was quickly told it had been passed down through the family and was actually painted by Conway.
In one scene Fiona, Philip and Miracle all visited Chatsworth House to examine another Conway painting of Georgiana, the Duchess of Devonshire.
Miracle was convinced there were great similarities between her work and her own painting, but Philip was determined to prove otherwise.
“That’s amazing,” Fiona declared at the breath-taking sight, as Philip noted Cosway had depicted the Duchess as a Greek Goddess.
“It’s so dramatic, it’s like she’s hurtling out of the heavens towards us,” Fiona then said, continuing to experience the piece.
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“Actually, which to be fair is probably what she’s literally doing because this is Diana the Huntress, she had a soft spot Maria Conway, for the dressing up box,” Philip went on, and Fiona joked: “I mean not bad, if you wanted to be preserved Mirabel as a goddess hurtling out of the sky, is pretty good. I love it, I have to say.”
But Philip was keen to put a halt to the niceties, and he got down to business.
“Unfortunately this portrait is damaged,” he said. “The paint is badly cracked, resulting in the leathery finish. But can we see through this to compare it to Peniston Lamb?
“The all important technique is radically different to yours,” he offered to Mirabel. “I mean look at the way the drapery is done, particularly top right, you’ve got that flowing piece of robe, half-hair, half-rags, half-something.”
Balking at her co-host’s biting comments, Fiona hit back immediately.
“That’s a bit harsh,” she cried. “It’s not that bad. I mean it’s just a sort of gauzy material isn’t it?” the presenter then attempted to correct.
“Well it is, but this worries me in a way that yours [Mirabel] doesn’t,” Philip countered, not letting go. “The way that that neck-tie in that Serpentine way goes round Peniston’s neck…”
Mirabel continued to fight for her “family” artwork, feeling particularly protective of its perceived history as a Lawrence piece.
“But in a way you’re comparing chalk with cheese because one is an actual portrait of a person the other is a goddess literally hurtling out of space,” she said. “Well it’s very glamorous and Peniston is very glamorous. The colour of the cheeks, the sparkle in the eye, the half-open mouth. Very lively gaze. Background of the Peniston is so lowering with the storm clouds and this is a sort of comparable palette.”
“It’s a very dramatic sky that’s for sure,” Fiona giggled, and Philip realised the owner still needed more “convincing”.
Yet as the episode came to a close and the presenters had spent hours poring over historical documents, the received proof the painting was done by Lawrence, and would therefore be worth a lot more money in auction.
Fake of Fortune continues Thursdays at 9pm on BBC One.